802.11ad

Sam ChenAugust 8, 2017

802.11ad, or more commonly known as WiGig, is a short range wireless data transfer protocol designed for multi-gigabit connectivity. 802.11ad is theoretically capable of up to 7Gbps, which is about twice as fast as the theoretical maximum of 802.11ac Wave 2 however, its effective range is only about 30 feet.

Unlike 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ac wave 2, 802.11ad operates on the 57-66GHz frequencies, more commonly known as the 60GHz band. Due to the way radio waves work, higher frequency bands lack the wall penetration capabilities of lower frequency bands, but because there’s less interference in higher frequency bands, a wider amount of frequency can be used to transmit data allowing for greater throughput.